Various types of boats and surfboards are known. Toy boats are also known. However, there are no previously known toy surfboards actually capable of surfing, because the act of surfing has required the presence of an active and controlling surfer. For example, if a toy boat is placed at a crest of a wave or in front of a wave, usually the wave will merely pass under the boat which will bob like a float; in other words, the wave will not catch the toy boat and propel it forward in the same fashion in which a surfer is able to ride a wave. Until the present time, no one has been able to provide a successful surfing toy which is able to catch a wave and surf towards shore in a manner simulating that of an actual surfer.
The patent literature is replete with patents describing toy boats, and among these is the design patent 168,807 in the name of Reuther which shows a self-propelled double-hulled toy boat with a figurine standing thereon. The Jacobson design patent 77,360 shows an amusement boat with a horse and bicycle thereon. Toy boats having keels are shown in patents including those of Holt 3,308,577; Hornbostel 3,280,501; Sugihara 4,551,113; and Shaver 1,639,707, undoubtedly among others. On the other hand, surfboards do not have keels, although they may have one or more fins at the aft portion, such as illustrated in Levenson D-205,254 and Bloomingdale D-209,433, these latter design patents relating to motorized surfboards, and guiding fins are also shown in Penney U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,276 relating to a water ski construction.
As indicated above, none of the prior devices are able to surf without intervention, i.e. without the activity of a person, and no wave-propelled surfing toy has been previously known to exist.